Pope meets grieving families affected by mafia dumping
Pope Leo greeted grieving families who lost loved ones due to illegal dumping of toxic waste in an area near Naples that has been linked to a multibillion-dollar crime ring run by the mafia.
Many paused to share photos and other mementos of children and teens who died or battled cancer due to pollution.
Leo’s visit to the so-called Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fire, comes on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of the late Pope Francis’s great ecological encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised), and demonstrates Leo’s determination to continue his predecessor’s environmental agenda.
“Above all, I have come to collect the tears of those who lost their loved ones and died due to environmental pollution caused by unscrupulous individuals and organizations that were able to act with impunity for too long,” Leo said in his speech to family members and local clergy at the Acerra cathedral.
The Pope recalled that the region now called the Land of Fire was once called “Campania felix,” Latin for blessed or fertile countryside, “capable of being fascinating, like a hymn of life, with its fertility, its products and its culture.”
“And yet there is death, both of land and of people,” the pope said.
The European Court of Human Rights last year confirmed complaints from a generation of residents in 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples, with a population of 2.9 million, that the mafia dumped, buried and burned toxic waste, leading to rising rates of cancer and other illnesses.
The court found that Italian authorities had been aware of the toxic pollution since 1988, blaming the Camorra criminal organization that controlled the disposal of the waste, but failed to take the necessary steps to protect residents.
The binding decision gave Italy two years to create a database on toxic waste and the health risks of living there.
Bishop Antonio Di Donna estimated that 150 young people had died in the city of approximately 58,000 people in the last three decades, emphasizing in his opening statement that this number did not take into account adults and victims in other municipalities.
Noting that it was reported that tons of toxic waste were dumped near Castera the day before, he called on the pope to warn those who continue to pollute.
Di Donna said Italian authorities have identified dozens of sites of human-caused contamination across the country, including Venice’s port of Marghera and the leaking of PFAS chemicals into groundwater near Vicenza.
“To our brothers and sisters who are ensnared in evil and caught in the mirage of glorious gain, we say: Convert, change your ways, for what you have done is not just a crime, but a sin crying out to God for vengeance,” the bishop said.
The pope then greeted the mayors of 90 communities affected by toxic waste and greeted thousands of people waving yellow flags and chanting “Papa Leone” along the route of the pope’s mobile phone and in a central square.
The victims include Maria Venturato, who died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 25.
His father, Angelo, said he hoped to speak to the pope to explain the reality of this situation “not for me, but for the next generation.”
“I want to give these young people a future, and I’m asking the Pope for help in this regard. So I’m making a strong appeal to him to go to those in power and say, ‘Look, let’s heal this land of fire,'” he said.
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
